Transcription of the 2000 FSF Award Ceremony
1 February 2001
Transcription done by: Sebastien Blondeel
[chatty chat]
[1:58]
RMS [faint]
Welcome to the Third Annual Free Software Award
Ceremony.
[applause]
[The microphone being too low, RMS lies/ducks on
the stage to be at the right level and stands up
little by little]
[2:25]
RMS: This is a bit more comfortable. What a relief.
17 years ago, we began developing the GNU
operating system, designed to be compatible
with Unix, and entirely free software,
intended to make it possible to use a
computer and have the freedom to cooperate
fully with other people -- something that was
impossible (at?) the time, in 1984, because all
of the operating systems (for modern
computers?) were proprietary, restricted,
dividing users and keeping them helpless.
Most users became accustomed to that; they
thought it was normal, even inevitable.
Some of us did not agree. [dramatic pause]
About 8 years later, Linus Torvalds was
writing a free kernel named Linux.
Putting the two together (GNU and Linux)
completed the operating system because we
hadn't completely finished GNU at that time.
And so the result was that our dream was
accomplished: it was actually possible once
again to use a computer and freedom.
A lot of work remains to be done however.
There (are a lot of?) areas in computing
where you still can't use free software which
means it's (still impossible for people?) to
to do their work as part of a
community of people who have freedom.
And so we decided to have these awards...
to give these awards to people who have done
something special and significant to advance
the world of (free?) software, to make it
possible to do some important new things
and still keep your freedom.
The...
Should I talk about (who won the award?) this
year now or should I wait till later to say
who he is?
Ok I'll wait till later. Yes ok so I won't
reveal who it is. But he wrote a program that
(fulfills?) a very important need (bringing?)
freedom into an area where otherwise we would
have had a great danger.
You see one thing that happens in the field
of software is new standards were... de facto
standards are developed. And often (supported
only?) by non-free software. So every time
that happens it's a danger because it's a
temptation. People are attracted by this
exciting new non-free software. They might start
to use and might start to depend on it and
become accustomed to having it. And so every
time we need to develop free software to do
the job so that essentially we can relieve the
temptation. So the people who were excited
to do that thing won't rush off and leave
their freedom behind. Because we give them a
way to carry the freedom along instead. And this
year's winner has done that. And that should be
getting you wondering and thinking -- which
is exactly what this is supposed to do.
So I will now hand things over to Georg
Greve, from the Free Software Foundation
Europe.
[applause]
[6:25]
Georg:
Thanks. Um. It's my pleasure and honor to
welcome all of you to the Free Software
Foundation award ceremony on behalf of the
Free Software Foundation Europe. And I will
try to keep this short since we are pretty
late and we want to (get ???). So thanks to our
sponsors: Aurora, IDEALX and VA Linux who
(funded?) this event. They agreed to give the
excess money to the Free Software Foundation
Europe and we are very glad to get this
money.
Before I leave the stage I have more one thing to
do that makes me very glad. So I'd like to
ask Daniel Riek to come.
[applause]
[7:20]
Being willing to do a task is not always
equal to being able to do it. Because
everyone has a lot on his program, and
sometimes there are people who make it
possible to do things. Mr Reik did so for
me. He paid me so I was able to work on the
Free Software Foundation Europe. So we would
like to present him with this certificate of
appreciation we prepare on behalf of the Free
Software Foundation Europe and the Free
Software Foundation.
Daniel: Thank you very much.
[applause]
[8:08]
[faint]
Thank you it is a surprise for me for because
I was not prepared for it. I think that the
Free Software Foundation did a great job and
I think the Free Software Foundation Europe
can do a great job. It is a very important
thing to support free software. Thank you
very much.
[RMS asks for details about the setting up of
the FSF Europe]
[8:40]
Georg:
Just a few words. The Free Software
Foundation Europe is well there in our spirits and
hearts and is almost there legally. Our
laywer is done writing the constitution for the
central hub organization that will kind of be
the central node and is currently working on
writing the subconstitution for the local
chapters because since there is no European
law on setting up something like the Free
Software Foundation Europe wide, we have to
do in it a way that we have one central node
that has a local node in every local country. So
we will be present in every European country
at least in the long run. So in February we
should be able to launch the hub, and in
March we should be able to launch the local
organizations in France, Italy, Swiss and
Germany. And soon after that we expect to be
able to go to Sweden, to Spain, and the UK.
And from there on we will have to see. But
we definitely do want to be present
in every country.
Ok so now I think it's time to ask Frédéric
Couchet to come up here. He will be our
French chancelor for the Free Software
Foundation Europe, and is also president of
APRIL.
Frédéric Couchet: Thanks Georg Greve.
[applause] [10:05]
[speaking in French, translated to English by
Sébastien Blondeel]
Bon étant donné que mon anglais est terrible
je vais parler en français et Sébastien va
traduire. [low] Pas besoin de traduire cette
partie-là.
Avant de remettre en fait le FSF award euh la
FSF a voulu remercier quelqu'un de précis en
France pour son travail sur le logiciel libre
depuis des années.
Before they give away the award the FSF
wanted to thank someone very particular, very
special in France for all the work he has been
doing to help free software for a long time
now.
Plutôt que de donner le CV complet du
monsieur (qui est très long), un petit résumé
de sa carrière. Il se définit lui-même comme
développeur senior qui a commencé en 1987
avec la découverte de GNU Emacs et la
distribution de bandes GNU.
A little summary of his résumé. It all
started in 1987. Well he defines himself as a
senior developer. It all started in 1987, err
1-9-8-7, when he discovered Emacs and started
distributing tapes of GNU software.
En 1989 il crée l'association GNA pour «GNA
is Not Axis» par rapport au nom de la société
où il travaillait à l'époque bien entendu
Axis et le but de la fondation de la création
de GNA c'était justement la distribution de
bandes GNU. Pendant un an en fait il va
prendre des vacances, très peu bouger, et
distribuer des bandes GNU, organiser des
conférences avec Richard, (???... version
anglaise).
In 1989, he funded an... association called
GNA, for GNA is not Access, because he used
to work for a company called Access. And GNA
basically distributed GNU tapes, and he also
spent his time distributing GNU binaries and
organizing conferences for Richard.
À cette occasion il va aussi participer à
quelques développements sur les binutils,
gcc. Et entre 95 et 95...(???) en 95 il se
définit lui-même --- c'est marqué --- «Rien
de notable(???); j'ai appris à programmer».
On pense qu'il a bien appris à programmer
quand on regarde un peu son code.
[??? That was 1991--1995]
Ok, so he contributed to binutils and gcc and
things like that, and on his résumé we can
see from the years 91 to 95, we can see:
"Nothing special, I just learned to program".
Well we think he's done a pretty good job
learning, because he's very good now.
Sa production la plus connue dans le cadre du
logiciel libre est dans doute le moteur de
recherche Ecila et en fait depuis quelques
années il travaille par rapport au domaine
senga.org sur le développement d'outils sur
le traitement de l'information qui sont
totalement libres, il y a un certain nombre
d'outils: nifluze(???) qui sont intégrés au
moteur(???)... qui sont utilisés notamment
par certains fournisseurs d'hébergement etc.
Et il ne fait *que* du logiciel libre depuis
des années et il ne travaille que pour des
gens qui font du logiciel libre.
His most famous production is a product named
Ecila which is a search engine and on
senga.org he's been developing a number of
software to process information(???), and all
his software is free, he's only been doing
free software for a number of years and he
only accepts to work for companies that work
for and with free software.
Actuellement il travaille en fait sur le
portage d'un clone sourceforge qui s'appelle
savannah.gnu.org et sur la refonte des pages
job de GNU notamment en liaison avec Lolix.
[Sébastien looks, as previously, for the
keywords on the paper for this part but
Frédéric mentions laughingly that there is no
written aid any more. People laugh and clap]
He's now working on a clone of sourceforge
called savannah.gnu.org, and a rebuild of the
GNU web pages in association... well sorry a
rebuild of the GNU web pages related to job
offers and jobs, and he does that in
cooperation with Lolix.
C'est vraiment un grand plaisir pour moi de
remettre ce prix de Richard à Loïc parce que
Loïc a beaucoup participé au développement
d'APRIL d'abord par son hébergement de sa
machine en 96 et de la fourniss ...ture de
l'accès et aussi par ses nombreux conseils;
c'est l'une des personnalités qui en France,
dans l'ombre, conseille l'approche la plus
claire possible par rapport au logiciel libre
et il fait notamment beaucoup pour certaines
sociétés qui sont notamment présentes à la
LinuxExpo et qui devraient écouter ses
conseils. C'est vraiment un grand plaisir
de remettre ce prix à Loïc Dachary. [tells
Sébastien not to translate this part while
applause takes place. Loïc comes to stage.]
[15:40]
RMS (showing the frame):
It's signed by me. Yeah, I do those things.
[laughs]
I will ask Henri (one of his friends) to come
and translate.
RMS: no, just talk in English. It slows
things down. We're happy to hear your
English.
Loic: I am pretty happy to receive this
award...
[recording too low to hear because Loïc
stands too far from the mike]
I found myself in a position to be a CEO. But
it takes ages to really learn how to program.
And I can learn more, I want to learn more, I
don't want to do something else. There are so
many things to do in free software where
there are gaps. I want to be the best
programmer possible given my mind and my
imagination. So I have to learn. And I
encourage all developers to take the same
attitude and just refuse to become a manager
or a CTO because there is so much to do to
build a free software world.
RMS: So don't do what I did! [laughs] [17:30]
Loïc: err... I didn't mean that...
when you get... err, ok
[confused, he stops his speech. Laughs.]
Loïc: I sincerely ... sometimes I regret that
you don't program anymore. That's for sure.
Last thing I wanted to say is that...
everyone has to convince and to teach
companies and individuals to distinguish
between non-free software and free software
because it's a difficult, concept that is
hard to understand.
It needs lots of talking and explaining that
you should not mix non-free software and free
software. Most individuals and companies
think it's ok to do that, because they don't
see the final goal of free software, which is
to live in a free software world. And, by
mixing all that, by pretending that something
is free when it's not, it's slowing down
things and preventing things to happen. When
you fill the gap with a proprietary software
program, you hide the fact that there is a
need.
As often as I can I speak to individuals and
companies in any way that I can in order to
make them understand this. And if they do not
understand that it's not because they are
stupid but because it's a hard concept to get
and you need to repeat a lot and a lot. So I
will keep doing that, and I hope that you
will help do that too. Thank you very much.
[applause] [19:25]
RMS:
Now it's time to give the actual free
software award for 2000. To the developer of
Mesa, Brian Paul.
[applause] [20:00]
Brian:
[The award being a cloth mainly red, RMS
plays the torero with Brian].
[laughs, applause][20:20]
RMS: Would you like to say a few words?
Brian: Yes, I would like to say a few words.
Thank you very much Richard.
Sorry. I did have to write something down, so
I don't go completely lost and off track
here.
I want to begin by thanking the open source
community and the Free Software Foundation
for nominating me and giving(???) me this
award. I'm very honored. (???) It just so
happens that in a few weeks will be the 10th
anniversary of my work in open source
software.[???]
In 1991 with Bill Hibbert, university
of Wisconsin, I started working on a
visualization software, on a system that was
an atmospheric imaging program. It was
distributed under the GNU license, and I
didn't appreciate the significance but I
understood it afterwards.
[largely guessed: too fast, low,
interspersed] In my mind, Open Source is
largely about collaboration and people help
you do things you wouldn't have been able to
do on your own. One of the best side-effects
of this community is you get to meet people
from all around the world, whom you would
never have met otherwise---it brings people
together. When I say people I above all mean
e-mail sort of things. You can actually get
to know people pretty well via email, and I
think that I've made some pretty good
friends...
[RMS scribbles something on a piece of paper
and shows it to Brian]
I've been corrected it's not "open source
software" it's "free software".
[laughs, applause] [22:20]
Please go back and search and replace all
occurrences of, "free software" I'm sorry I
mean ...of "open source software" [laughs]
with "free software". I apologize.
(???) In my work on Vis5D[???], I got to know
a lot of people around the world who shared
an interest in improving the software. In
fact, its success could be credited to that
of free software.[???]
I must say that I will always be in debt to
my employer Bill Hibbert first for giving me
the job and secondly for introducing me to
free software.
Also, in my spare time I began to work on a
3D rendering project for which I started
developing a 3D graphics library. I got the
OpenGL interface specification which was
available on the Internet. I downloaded it,
read it very quickly, and was very impressed
by it and I decided that my graphics library
would be using the OpenGL interface. After
working on it for about a year and a half, it
quickly took off. Withing a matter of weeks
I was receiving dozens of emails a week from
people around the world who were either
sending bug fixes, or new features, or just
thank you notes. And thank you notes were
something I was not expecting from this work.
Thank you's and appreciation from people is
one of the things to keep me working on the
project for the past 7 years.
As it is now, Mesa has become a central
component of the X86 Window System. And by
being a part of that exposure of people to 3d
graphics has increased over the years(???).
It's been very rewarding to see 3d graphics
becoming so common(???) on the desktop
basically.
It's largely my love of computer graphics
and starboards(???) which has driven me. I
just enjoy working with 3D graphics. The free
software community gives the best of both
those worlds for me.
I look forward to more such work in the
future.
I'd like to finish by again saying thank you
to the Open Source[sic] community and the
Free Software Foundation. Finally, I'd like
to thank my employer VA Linux systems for
sending me to LinuxExpo and here for this
special occasion. Thank you very much.
[applause] [25:10]
RMS:
Well now you see how much of a struggle it is
for the Free Software Movement to be
remembered. Most of the people who use our
software think we don't exist any more and
that we've been replaced by the Open Source
Movement which of course exists since 1998,
but we in the Free Software Movement we also
exist continuing to put a focus on ideas of
freedom and what kind of society we want to
live in. Which in general the open source
movement doesn't talk about.
They contributed in many ways(???) to the
increase of free software that we have, and
have contributed a lot to the free software
community, but the Free Software Movement
does something that in the long term is
essential. And that is to focus people's
attention on the meaning of having freedom
for the long term. And we are the only
ones(???) in the long term to make the effort
to address the problem.
Now there are problems relating very closely
to Mesa and XFree86. Because they are free
softwarem, but sometimes it's hard to make
them run as free software on some of the
popular new hardware. And the reason is that
hardware manufacturers today often do not
tell us how to run the hardware. They give
you(???) the hardware but not how to run(???)
it. It's Rather strange, I would think, but
it's not unusal.
And the area of 3D video hardware is one
where there's a major problem today. There
is essentially a monopoly now on that
component: high quality accelerators. And the
monopolists won't release full specs. So
people actually are trying to improve free
software on that type of hardware, but
meanwhile there is a tempting non-free
program you can use to run it.
Now this temptation is dangerous because if
we accept using non-free software to... with
this hardware, we've given up a goal: of
using software and freedom. And it's probably
(???) more and more.
Now people in the community have two
reactions to this. One reaction is, let's
make it easy and convenient to install the
non-free software to run that hardware.
Perhaps for those who look in terms of
practicality (say the Open Source
philosophers), that seems like a solution,
but for the Free Software philosophy, it's
not a solution, it's hiding the problem. Now,
there is a free driver available... there is
free software available to run these video
cards, at the moment it's not as powerful.
But if you want freedom, that's what you need
to use.
Now I myself would either use hardware with
free software or just not get (that
hardware???). And I think it's important for
people to consider the option---of buying
only hardware that is not as fancy but is
usable conveniently with freedom and comes
from a company that supports the free
software community fully.
Now one thing I hope is I would find a
person to do... to develop a list that will
be updated that describes which hardware
manufacturers cooperate with our community
and which do not. Something that describes
the status of which products can be used
entirely with free software and which
cannot.(???)
If you're interested in working on this
project, it's really a big job(???), please send
mail to gnu@gnu.org. By informing people when
they have choices available we'll be able to
put more market pressure on the companies
that refuse to cooperate with our freedom and
we'll be able to get a lot of them to change.
Finally, I should mention something about the
state of software patents in Europe. A few
months ago countries in eunet(???) discussed
whether to amend a treaty to authorize
software patents in the European Patent
Office. The free software community has got
very organized about this issue in Europe and
managed to make the governments aware of the
problems of the software patents and they
originally changed.
[TODO NDsbi: footnote to list of governments and
their feelings about this [from RMSconf]?]
But now, the European Union has got into the
act. And the directorate which is in charge
is pretty obedient to large multinational
companies, which want software patents. So
the next step is going to have to be, I
believe, to work with the individual
governments of Europe to get to block this
initiative also.
The European Union recently conducted a study
of software patents and lots of people sent
in comments and answers(???), pointing out
the problems. And the European Union people
simply ignored it. Completely. And came out
in favor of patents.
So we have an uphill battle to fight, but
we've seen that we can win these battles.
Those of you in Europe *must* participate in
this fight.
For more information go look at
www.freepatents.org, website of Jean-Paul
Smets, one of the great leaders in this
battle.
There is also a petition you can sign, and
signatures are welcome from outside Europe as
well. I've signed; I'm not a citizen of
Europe. This petition is located at
petition.eurolinux.org. Please sign if you
have not, and please talk with anyone who
runs a business(???) you know. And not just
software businesses or computer businesses
but restaurants, cold stores(???), and
anything. About the new bureaucracy they're
going to be tangled up in, if software
patents are allowed. Thank you in advance,
for helping in this fight.
[applause] [31:40]
Frédéric:
The recording of this show will be shown at
LinuxExpo tomorrow. I thank especially École
Centrale Polytechnique and IDEALX...
Sorry?
École Centrale PARIS!
[note: "Polytechnique" is another famous
engineering school in France]
Oh sorry. [laughs] Come back. So École
Centrale Paris and IDEALX we'll show the
ceremony only with free software named
VideoLan and secondwards(???) there is a
cocktail upstairs. [laughs]. Thanks.
[applause]
RMS: Happy hacking everyone!
===============================================================================
Place where this took place:
. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, 71 rue du Temple, F-75003 Paris
People, products, or institutions mentioned:
. Free Software Foundation
. GNU project (same website)
. Free Software Foundation Europe
. APRIL
. École Centrale de Paris
. Ecila
. Senga
. Savannah
. Mesa
. VideoLan
. Freepatents
. Petition against software patents in Europe
. Richard M. Stallman founder of the FSF and the GNU project
. Georg Greve head of FSF Europe
. Frédéric Couchet president of APRIL and French
Chancelor of the FSF Europe
. Loïc Dachary "senior developer"
. Brian Paul FSF award winner
. To volunteer for some needed GNU task mailto:
Sponsors of the event
. Aurora
. IDEALX
. VA Linux Systems
Thanks also to
. the IDEALX post-production team for their after hours
. Loïc Cuguen for his dedication and research
. Bradley Kuhn for his rough transcription
. Sébastien Blondeel for translation live on stage and
finalization of transcription
. Samuel Hocevar for his C program to turn the full video
stream into a lightweight sound-only stream, which helped transcription.
[TODO NDsbi: include it? refer to it? URL then?]
TODO: mention/give link to:
Daniek Riek?
GNA?
Axis?
Nifluze?
Lolix?
Bill Hibbert (sp?)
Vis5d?
Jean-Paul Smets?